MSU Extension Michigan Naturalist Program

05/19/2026

found a baby animal?

Between now and July, you'll probably find a baby animal somewhere on your property. On the lawn, in the garage, under a bush. It will look helpless. It will look abandoned.

Most of the time, it isn't. Here's what to do for each one 🌿

🐦 Baby bird — feathered, hopping, alert:

- That's a fledgling. It left the nest on purpose. The parents are nearby, feeding it on the ground. Leave it where it is. If a cat or dog is nearby, move it to the nearest shrub — that's all it needs

🐦 Baby bird — naked, eyes closed:

- That's a nestling. It fell too early. If you can find the nest, put it back. The parents won't reject it — most birds have a poor sense of smell. Human scent on a baby bird is not a problem

🐇 Baby rabbit — fur-lined nest in the lawn:

- The mother visits only at dawn and dusk to avoid drawing predators. Her absence is the protection, not a sign of abandonment. Re-cover the nest gently and mow around it. The kits leave on their own within a few weeks

🐿️ Baby squirrel — on the ground:

- Place it near the base of the nearest tree. The mother usually retrieves it within a few hours. If it's cold, keep it warm in a soft cloth near the tree. If she hasn't come back by evening, contact a wildlife rehabilitator

🦌 Fawn — lying alone in grass:

- The mother left it there deliberately. Fawns are nearly scentless and lie motionless — that's their defense. She returns to nurse a few times a day. Don't touch it, don't move it. If it's still there after 24 hours with no sign of the mother, then call a rehabilitator

🐢 Baby turtle — crossing a road:

- Carry it to the side it was heading toward. Don't relocate it to a "better" spot — she knows where she's going. Never carry a turtle by the tail

For anything else — injured, visibly sick, or a species you can't identify — contact a licensed wildlife rehabilitator through your state wildlife agency.

The most helpful thing you can do for most baby animals this season is leave them where they are 🌿

05/19/2026

Found a feather?

Found a feather on the ground and not sure who dropped it. Size plus pattern plus where you found it tells you the species.

🪶 Bright blue with black bars and a white tip, jay-sized:
- Vivid sky blue with crisp black barring — blue jay. The most recognizable feather in any eastern yard

🪶 Red, orange, or yellow body feather under a feeder:
- Brilliant scarlet, slightly stiff — northern cardinal male
- Warm buff with a red wash on the edge — cardinal female
- Bright lemon yellow with a black tip — American goldfinch

🪶 Brown and barred, found near a brush pile or wood edge:
- Rich rusty brown with dark cross-bars, sparrow-sized — song sparrow
- Warm cinnamon with fine dark bars — Carolina wren
- Mottled brown and tan with a black central stripe — mourning dove

🪶 Long and striped, found near a clearing or field edge:
- Bold black-and-white bars, ten to fourteen inches — wild turkey tail
- Brown with crisp black barring, six to eight inches — red-tailed hawk
- Slate gray with two or three dark bands at the tip — Cooper's hawk

🪶 Iridescent black, crow-sized or larger:
- Glossy with green-purple sheen, fully black shaft — American crow
- Same sheen but huge, up to sixteen inches — common raven
- Smaller and shinier with a brown head feather mixed in — common grackle

🪶 Soft and downy, drifting in the breeze:
- Pure white fluff, no shaft visible — goose or duck breast down
- Gray fluff with a darker tip — mourning dove body down
- Tiny powder-soft white — pigeon or dove undercoat

🪶 Black and white patterned, woodpecker-sized:
- Crisp black-and-white bars, six to nine inches — red-bellied woodpecker
- Black with white spots and a yellow shaft — northern flicker
- Pure black with a bold white stripe — downy or hairy woodpecker

🌿 Quick rules:
- Bright blue with black bars — blue jay, no other eastern bird looks like this
- Yellow shaft running down a brown feather — northern flicker, the only common species with this trait
- Black-and-white horizontal bars, longer than your hand — wild turkey tail
- A perfect crisp white tip on a darker feather — bluebird, jay, or junco edge
- Iridescent green-purple shine on solid black — crow or grackle, never a starling (those are speckled)

Federal law protects native bird feathers, so admire and leave them where they fell 🌿

05/10/2026

Education and volunteer opportunity

05/10/2026

Cool. MNFI Adopt a nest program

Once you know where ospreys like to build their giant nests, you won’t be able to stop looking for them!

Osprey nests can reach 10-13 feet deep and 3-6 feet in diameter after years of building. These large hawks can live for 15-20 years, and pairs usually return to the same nest and add to it each year.

Historically, ospreys nested only on cliffs, at the tops of tall trees or on “snags” – dead trees that are still standing.

But due to humans removing or disturbing these important habitat elements, ospreys have adapted to build nests on human-built structures like utility poles, towers and platforms.

They seem to especially like cell towers. In 2024 and 2025, Adopt-A-Nest community scientists conducted 238 osprey nest check surveys in 22 Michigan counties and found that 56% of the nests observed were built in cell towers.

In fact, over 97% of the observations in this study period were of nests created on human-built structures – including pole platforms, electric poles, high tension towers, light poles, snags, telephone poles and water towers. Ospreys eat fish, so their favorite nesting spots are near rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Now that you know ospreys could be nesting in tall structures all around you, it’ll be hard to keep your eyes out of the sky! Sign up to be an Adopt-A-Nest community scientist and start observing nests near you.

To volunteer, contact the Michigan Natural Features Inventory at [email protected]. You can find more information about the Osprey Adopt-A-Nest program in the comments.

04/09/2026

04/09/2026

I need more flowers

The pest doesn't need spraying. It needs a predator. The predator doesn't need buying. It needs a flower.

Plant the right flower and the predator shows up on its own, finds the pest, and does the work for free. The chain assembles itself.

🌱 Five chains that work:

- Aphids → ladybug larvae → plant yarrow. The larvae do the killing — hundreds of aphids each. The yarrow keeps the adults around to lay eggs near the colony

- Tomato hornworms → braconid wasps → let your dill bolt. The wasp lays eggs inside the hornworm. The flowers are the weapon, not the dill leaves

- Slugs → ground beetles → let cilantro flower. The beetles hunt at night while you sleep. The flowers give them daytime shelter

- Cabbage worms → paper wasps → plant fennel. The wasps catch caterpillars, chew them into paste, and feed them to their own larvae. One nest near your brassicas catches dozens a day

- Whiteflies → lacewing larvae → plant cosmos. The larvae have sickle-shaped jaws that drain whiteflies in seconds. The cosmos keeps adult lacewings fed and laying eggs nearby

One flower per pest. The predator does the rest 🌿

04/02/2026

Salamander watching

Spotted and blue-spotted salamanders start migrating to vernal pools in early spring, which means we are starting to see egg masses appear in pools, especially in the southern part of Michigan.

The amphibian species that use vernal pools as nursery habitat, like salamanders, have a biphasic life cycle, meaning they spend part of their life in water and part on land.

🟡 Their life begins in the vernal pool after the great breeding migration occurs and egg masses are laid submerged in water.

🟡 Two to three weeks later, eggs hatch into fully aquatic larvae, These eggs hatch within 2-3 weeks into fully aquatic larvae, equipped with gills and a tail for swimming.

🟡 In a race against dryness, these salamanders develop rapidly. Metamorphosis takes place and larvae will develop legs, lungs, and lose their gills. By the end of the summer, they will be terrestrial juveniles and find a new home in the surrounding forest.

**Salamanders have evolved a diversity of developmental strategies and the graphic describes the lifecycle of the blue-spotted and spotted salamander species that use vernal pools.

01/26/2026

As we approach some especially colder days ahead, we would like to highlight a species with a particularly unique adaptation to get through the winter months – the wood frog (Lithobates sylvaticus/Rana sylvatica)!

Native to North America, the wood frog’s range extends further north than any other North American reptile or amphibian, with populations ranging all the way from the Appalacchians in the east to northern Alaska in the west (as well as covering New England, the Great Lakes region and much of Canada along the way). Wood frogs are typically active from early spring through mid-fall, spending their summers in cool, forested habitats and eventually breeding in ephemeral bodies of water such as bogs, marshes and vernal pools.

Wood frogs are particularly known for their distinctive method of surviving through the winter months. As temperatures drop, wood frogs bury themselves beneath leaf litter, and begin the process of entering a type of frozen suspended animation. During this time, up to 65% of the water in a wood frog’s body freezes solid. However, this is only the water located outside the frog’s cells and organs – to avoid cell damage, the wood frog also produces substances known as cryoprotectants, which prevent its organs from freezing. As this happens, the wood frog stops breathing, as well as ceases heartbeat and kidney function – a form of stasis that will last until thawing season in the spring.

Photo Credit: Dan Burton

01/16/2026

Education opportunities

and happy ! Announcing our 2026 Winter Webinar series! These will be every other Monday evening at 5:30p starting January 12 and are FREE to attend. Sign up at our website: https://www.michiganforests.org/events/. ☀️🌳🌲🪾❄️

01/07/2026

Michigan State University (MSU) is transforming 30 acres of campus land into pollinator-friendly habitat, including gardens, meadows and clover fields. The MSU Department of Entomology and MSU Infrastructure Planning and Facilities collaborated to expand insect- and pollinator-friendly habitats while reducing landscape maintenance demands. Learn more: http://spr.ly/6180COrY2